Qantas Sale Act bill passes Lower House but set to fail in the Senate

ELEANOR HALL: But we begin today in the Federal Parliament where the Government's bill to change the Qantas Sale Act has passed the Lower House but it is unlikely to make it through Senate.

The changes would allow Qantas to be split in two with full foreign ownership of the domestic arm.

But despite goading from Government MPs, Labor and the Greens show no sign of supporting the changes in the Upper House.

The Opposition is also questioning whether the likely buyers would be allowed to invest in the airline because they're owned by other governments.

In Canberra, chief political correspondent Louise Yaxley reports.

LOUISE YAXLEY: The Federal Government's pushing on with its plan to open up Qantas to foreign ownership.

WARREN TRUSS: I present the Qantas Sale Amendment Bill 2014.

LOUISE YAXLEY: The Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss introduced the bill this morning to implement the plan agreed to by Cabinet on Monday.

WARREN TRUSS: The purpose of the bill is to remove the regulatory handcuffs that apply to Qantas but to no other Australian-based airline, including in relation to accessing foreign capital.

LOUISE YAXLEY: Labor's Tony Burke then surprised Mr Truss by calling on the Government to debate the bill today.

TONY BURKE: The Opposition would welcome the opportunity to seek leave to allow this debate to proceed immediately.

BRONWYN BISHOP: Is leave granted?

WARREN TRUSS: Leave is not granted, Madam Speaker. The Opposition didn't choose to inform the Government of this proposal.

LOUISE YAXLEY: That triggered a series of parliamentary shenanigans, including the speaker Bronwyn Bishop invoking the historic rule that people need a piece of paper on their head to be allowed to speak during a division.

BRONWYN BISHOP: Yes, we're in a division and you might put a piece of paper on his head.

LOUISE YAXLEY: Given the Government has the numbers it recovered its composure and decided to vote with Labor to bring on debate, to the apparent amusement of the Speaker.

BRONWYN BISHOP: The ayes have it.

(Laughter)

LOUISE YAXLEY: The Manager of Government Business, Christopher Pyne took delight in pointing out that Labor's hastening the Coalition's bill passing.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: This is one of the most extraordinary own goals that I've ever seen in 21 years in politics. The Opposition is facilitating, in fact demanding the Government pass its agenda and we will. We will pass it this morning and the Qantas Sale Amendment Bill will be in the Senate and the Senate can debate it and quite frankly, quite frankly if Labor wants to stand in the way of putting Qantas on the same footing as Virgin, it'll hang around their necks and every job that is lost at Qantas will be the Opposition's fault.

LOUISE YAXLEY: Mr Pyne cleared the way for Labor's transport spokesman Anthony Albanese to argue against the changes to the Qantas Sales Act, including questioning who would be practically be able to buy into the airline.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: The Government says but don't worry because the potential buyers will look at FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board) provisions will ensure that there can't a takeover that isn't in the Australian national interest. Who are the airlines, which of the airlines that will potentially invest? Are there any of them? Any of them that aren't government backed?

The two obvious places are from China and the UAE (United Arab Emirates). That's the strength of global aviation at the moment. Singapore of course is also very strong but they're in partnership with Virgin. So the Government is going down this road but saying don't worry cause we'll stop it. There's another process but of course FIRB make recommendations to the Treasurer, to the Treasurer, so it'll end up back with him.

LOUISE YAXLEY: And the Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten, attacked the Government for not doing enough for Qantas workers.

BILL SHORTEN: These people opposite are the cheese-eating surrender monkeys of Australian jobs to borrow from an American politician. They've never, they're only manufacturing policy is to buy a white flag made in another country and run it up the mast and now they're committing their acts of vandalism on Qantas.

They are not fit to be the government when you look at what they've done.

LOUISE YAXLEY: The Government has the numbers for the bill to easily pass the Lower House, but no sign of convincing the Senate to agree to scrapping the foreign ownership limits on the airline.

There's no compromise or alternative at this stage and the Finance Minister, Matthias Cormann says all the Government can do is keep making its case.

MATTHIAS CORMANN: Now we're setting out to persuade the Australian people and to persuade the Senate that it was the right call and this has still got a little while to go. By the time it gets to the Senate hopefully the Labor Party has been able to reflect on what is actually on the table and the ramifications would be of what they're suggesting.

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